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Research papers on Bilingualism and cognition

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  2. Musical Training, Bilingualism, and Executive Function: A Closer Look at Task Switching and Dual‐Task Performance

    Linda Moradzadeh, Galit Blumenthal, Melody Wiseheart · 2015 · Cognitive Science · 91 citations

    This study investigated whether musical training and bilingualism are associated with enhancements in specific components of executive function, namely, task switching and dual‐task performance. Participants (n = 153) belonging to one of four groups (monolingual musician, bilingual musician, bilingual non‐musician, or monolingual non‐musician) were matched on age and socioeconomic status and administered task switching and dual‐task paradigms. Results demonstrated reduced global and local switch costs in musicians compared with non‐musicians, suggesting that musical training can contribute to increased efficiency in the ability to shift flexibly between mental sets. On dual‐task performance,

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  3. Musical training, bilingualism, and executive function: working memory and inhibitory control

    A. D’Souza, L. Moradzadeh, M. Wiseheart · 2018 · Cognitive Research · 82 citations

    The current study investigated whether long-term experience in music or a second language is associated with enhanced cognitive functioning. Early studies suggested the possibility of a cognitive advantage from musical training and bilingualism but have failed to be replicated by recent findings. Further, each form of expertise has been independently investigated leaving it unclear whether any benefits are specifically caused by each skill or are a result of skill learning in general. To assess whether cognitive benefits from training exist, and how unique they are to each training domain, the current study compared musicians and bilinguals to each other, plus to individuals who had expertis

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  4. Effects of dense code-switching on executive control

    Julia Hofweber, Theodoros Marinis, Jeanine Treffers-Daller · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 81 citations

    Bilingualism is reported to re-structure executive control networks, but it remains unknown which aspects of the bilingual experience cause this modulation. This study explores the impact of three code-switching types on executive functions: (1) alternation, (2) insertion, and (3) dense code-switching or congruent lexicalisation. Current models hypothesise that different code-switching types challenge different aspects of the executive system because they vary in the extent and scope of language separation. Two groups of German-English bilinguals differing in dense code-switching frequency participated in a flanker task under conditions varying in degree of trial-mixing and resulting demands

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  5. Referring expressions and executive functions in bilingualism

    Antonella Sorace · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 66 citations

    Recent research has shown that the bilingual experience has positive effects on non-linguistic cognition (Bialystok 2009; Costa and Sebastian-Gallés 2014) but also negative effects on language, for example on vocabulary size and lexical fluency (Pearson et al. 1993). While most of the linguistic ‘disadvantages’ of bilingualism have been discussed in the lexical domain, this question is scaled up here to the sentence level and a novel theoretical framework is proposed which explicitly connects psychological and linguistic research. It is suggested that the bilingual experience may (a) affect the reciprocal interactions between language and general cognition, and (b) modulate the relation betw

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  6. Early Executive Function: The Influence of Culture and Bilingualism

    Crystal D. Tran, Maria M. Arredondo, Hanako Yoshida · 2018 · Bilingualism (Cambridge, England) · 58 citations

    Evidence suggests that cultural experiences and learning multiple languages have measurable effects on children's development of executive function (EF). However, the precise impact of how bilingualism and culture contribute to observed effects remains inconclusive. The present study aims to investigate how these factors shape the development of early EF constructs longitudinally, between monolingual and bilingual children at ages 3, 3½ and 4 years, with a set of EF tasks that are uniquely relevant to the effects of bilingualism and cultural practices. We hypothesize that the effects of bilingualism and cultural backgrounds (i.e., Eastern) are based on different, though related, cognitive co

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  7. Alerting, Orienting, and Executive Control: The Effect of Bilingualism and Age on the Subcomponents of Attention

    Tanya Dash, P. Berroir, Y. Joanette, et al. · 2019 · Frontiers in Neurology · 54 citations

    Life-long experience of using two or more languages has been shown to enhance cognitive control abilities in young and elderly bilinguals in comparison to their monolingual peers. This advantage has been found to be larger in older adults in comparison to younger adults, suggesting that bilingualism provides advantages in cognitive control abilities. However, studies showing this effect have used a variety of tasks (Simon Task, Stroop task, Flanker Task), each measuring different subcomponents of attention and raising mixed results. At the same time, attention is not a unitary function but comprises of subcomponents which can be distinctively addressed within the Attention Network Test (ANT)

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  8. Second language acquisition of grammatical rules: The effects of learning condition, rule difficulty, and executive function

    Marta Rivera, D. Paolieri, Antonio Iniesta, et al. · 2023 · Bilingualism: Language and Cognition · 15 citations

    Learning a new language is an important goal that many individuals find difficult to achieve, particularly during adulthood. Several factors have related this variability to different extrinsic (learning condition, difficulty of the materials) and intrinsic (cognitive abilities) factors, but the interaction between them is barely known. In two experiments, participants learned English grammar rules in intentional (Experiment 1) or explicit (Experiment 2), and incidental learning-contexts. Overall, results of this study indicated that intentional-explicit conditions benefitted rule-learning, as compared to incidental conditions. This benefit was mainly present when participants were learnin

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  9. Does bilingualism protect against cognitive aging? Methodological issues in research on bilingualism, cognitive reserve, and dementia incidence

    Caitlin Wei-Ming Watson, Jennifer J. Manly, Laura B. Zahodne · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 15 citations

    Recent studies of bilingualism as a protective factor in cognitive aging have reported conflicting findings, and researchers have begun to explore the methodological complications that may explain differences across studies. This article details the current research landscape and addresses several issues relevant to the study of bilingualism and late-life cognitive function: study design, establishing causal relationships, confounding factors, operationalizing bilingualism, predicting cognitive level versus cognitive change, and incorporating brain structural variables to interrogate cognitive reserve.

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  10. Executive control in bilingual children: Factors that influence the outcomes

    Klara Marton · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 15 citations

    While findings on the bilingual advantage in adults are mixed, the data from children are more consistent but still show variations. A number of factors influence the outcomes, such as individual bilingual characteristics, variations in target functions, and differences in task type. Our goal is to demonstrate that there is a complex relationship among these variables and that the outcomes of executive function (EF) studies depend on the interactions among these factors. Performance on EF is influenced by children's language proficiency, language use, age, socioeconomic status, and culture. These individual features show different interactions with different executive components. Bilingual a

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  11. Degree of bilingualism and executive function in early childhood

    M. V. H. Nguyen, Lindsey A. Hutchison, Gabrielle Norvell, et al. · 2023 · Language and Cognition · 14 citations

    This study explores the relationship between executive functioning (EF) and degree of bilingualism in a sample (N = 79) of 5- to 7-year-old monolingual and bilingual children. The bilingual group included children who are fully fluent in two languages (balanced bilinguals) and children who are still learning their second language (dual-language learners (DLLs). In general, findings revealed mixed associations between bilingualism and EF. There were no language group differences for one type of simple inhibitory control (i.e., go or no-go task). However, a bilingual advantage was demonstrated for another type of simple inhibitory control (the Head–Toes–Knees–Shoulders task), for complex inh

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  13. Putting together bilingualism and executive function

    Virginia Valian · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 12 citations

    Three important issues bear on understanding the connection between bilingualism and executive function. The first is the absence of a fine-grained task analysis for executive functions and other cognitive processes. The second is the absence of a theory of the cognitive mechanisms underlying the deployment of two or more languages and thus the absence of a solid basis on which to make predictions about what domain-general performances, if any, bilinguals should excel in. The third is the relation between neural and behavioral consequences of bilingualism. These three issues must be taken in account in trying to understand the variability among findings showing benefits of bilingualism for e

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  14. Cognitive Control and Bilingualism: The Bilingual Advantage Through the Lens of Dimensional Overlap

    Melodie Bellegarda, P. Macizo · 2021 · Frontiers in Psychology · 11 citations

    Past research shows that the bilingual experience may enhance cognitive executive function. In this experiment, we evaluated cognitive control in bilinguals relative to monolinguals by using a dimensional overlap model to predict performance in a task composed of Stroop and Simon stimuli. A group of 24 Spanish monolinguals and 24 bilinguals with differing first languages and all having Spanish as a second language (L2) did a picture naming task and a task composed of Stroop and Simon stimuli, where the effect of different overlap conditions (spatial/color) between stimuli and responses were examined. The tasks were performed in Spanish for both groups and performance was indexed with behavio

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  15. What cognitive processes are likely to be exercised by bilingualism and does this exercise lead to extra-linguistic cognitive benefits?

    Raymond M. Klein · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 11 citations

    I begin with some personal history that illuminates my background and my interest in the questions posed in this article’s title (What cognitive processes are likely to be exercised by bilingualism and does this exercise lead to extra-linguistic cognitive benefits?). A brief overview of historical interest in these questions follows, with emphasis on the landmark study by Peel and Lambert (1962) and the seminal ideas in Bialystok’s (2001) book: Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy and Cognition. Three cognitive processes (monitoring, selection mediated by inhibition, and switching) are likely to be “exercised” in the bilingual mind and, especially, in the bilingual context. Yet, d

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  17. Inside the multilingual and bidialectal mind: an investigation of the cognitive effect on executive function

    Kyriakos Antoniou, George Spanoudis · 2025 · Bilingualism: Language and Cognition · 6 citations

    Whether speaking two or more languages (multilingualism) or dialects of one language (bidialectalism) affect executive function (EF) is controversial. Theoretically, these effects may depend on at least two conditions. First, the multilingual and bidialectal characteristics; particularly, (second) language proficiency and the sociolinguistic context of language use (e.g., Green & Abutalebi, 2013). Second, the EF aspects examined; specifically, recent accounts of the locus of the multilingual effect propose a general EF effect rather than an impact on specific processes (Bialystok, 2017). We compared 52 “monolingual” (with limited additional-language/dialect experience), 79 bidialectal and 50

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  18. Effects of Bilingualism on Cognitive Processing

    C. Mackenzie · 2024 · European Journal of Linguistics · 5 citations

    Purpose: The general purpose of the study was to examine the effects of bilingualism on cognitive processing. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings reveal tha

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  19. Is dialect proficiency associated with improved executive function?

    A. Privitera · 2024 · Applied Psycholinguistics · 3 citations

    A broad and extensive literature has investigated the cognitive consequences of bilingualism on cognitive control. Results from these studies, while controversial, support the conclusion that speaking a second language confers non-linguistic benefits. Whether other related linguistic experiences, such as dialect use, confer similar benefits remains an underexplored and open question. The common use of a diverse range of local dialects across China provides ideal conditions under which to explore this question. Using a dialectally heterogeneous sample of Mandarin-English bilingual young adults (n = 74), the present study investigated whether differences in dialect proficiency impacted on in

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  20. Effects of Bilingualism on Executive Function of Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Scoping Review

    Hoi-Kwan Yuen, Haoyan Ge, Cai-Cai Zhang, et al. · 2025 · Children · 1 citations

    Highlights What are the main findings? Compared with their monolingual peers, bilingual children with ASD show advantages in working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control on performance-based tasks. The evidence is limited to ASD, with no studies found on other neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADHD or dyslexia, highlighting a research gap. Inconsistencies exist between performance-based and parent-reported executive function measures, with bilingual participants performing better in laboratory tasks. What is the implication of the main finding? Bilingualism may be beneficial for specific executive function skills in children with ASD, suggesting potential complementary v

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  21. The impact of bilingualism and code-switching on executive function performance

    Basak Özkara, R. Schneider, Gülay Cedden, et al. · 2025 · Frontiers in Psychology · 1 citations

    Bilingualism, characterized by the use of two or more languages, places unique demands on executive functions (EFs), which are essential for managing cross-linguistic interference. This study investigates EF performance in Turkish-German bilinguals and German monolinguals across five domains: response inhibiton, working memory, task-switching, interference control, and attention. Additionally, the influence of habitual code-switching behavior on EF outcomes in bilinguals was explored using a novel scene description game designed to elicit naturalistic code-switching patterns, which approximate participants’ habitual bilingual language use. Results revealed that bilinguals outperformed monoli

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  22. The bilingual effect on cognitive development: not an executive function advantage, but a differentiation of mental abilities

    Elisavet Chrysochoou, A. B. Vivas, Likane Cana, et al. · 2021 · Journal of Cognitive Psychology · 1 citations

    ABSTRACT Adopting a different theoretical framework from the one dominating the field, this study explored bilingualism influences on the development and differentiation of mental abilities. Albanian-Turkish bilingual (N = 122) and Albanian-speaking monolingual (N = 129) children, adolescents, and adults were assessed on monitoring, inhibitory control, processing efficiency, fluid reasoning, and vocabulary, and were asked to specify their own language efficiency (a cognizance index). Analyses showed a bilingual advantage in monitoring—adjusting for any fluid reasoning effects—which was larger in children. Moreover, a more pronounced bilingual benefit was observed for the incongruent conditio

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  23. Executive Function Performance in Bilingual and Monolingual Individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): a Comparative Analysis of Cold (Inhibitory Control and Cognitive Flexibility) and Hot (Theory of Mind) Executive Functions.

    Hossein Mehrafshan, Mehdi Purmohammad · 2026 · Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists

    OBJECTIVE This research had three main objectives. The first objective was to compare the performance of individuals with ADHD and normal individuals in hot (theory of mind) and cold (cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control) executive functions. The second objective was to compare hot and cold executive functions in bilingual and monolingual individuals. The third objective of the study was to examine the interactive effect of bilingualism and ADHD on hot and cold executive functions. METHODS To conduct the research, a variety of tools were employed, including the language experience and proficiency questionnaire, socio-economic status questionnaire (SES), Conners' Adult ADHD Rating S

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  24. Neural recruitment of inhibitory control in executive function among monolingual and bilingual preterm-born children: An fNIRS study

    Ashley Darcy Mahoney, Wei-Chiang Lin, Noble Amadi, et al. · 2026 · Bilingualism: Language and Cognition

    Preterm-born children are at increased risk for executive function (EF) deficits, particularly in inhibitory control. While bilingualism has been linked to enhanced EF in term-born children, its effects on preterm populations are less understood. This study explored whether bilingualism supports inhibitory control in preterm-born children using behavioral and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data during a Go/No-Go task. Sixteen preterm-born children (ages 6–7), both bilingual and monolingual, were assessed. Bilingual participants demonstrated faster reaction times (RTs) without compromising accuracy and showed lower levels of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) in the frontal lobe, in

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